Museums in Tampere

26.01.2018

Tampere has a good selection of interesting museums – everyone can find their favourite here!

Vapriikki Museum Centre

offers things to see and do for the whole family. The museum hosts about a dozen exhibitions each year, with varied themes from history to technology and natural sciences. Vapriikki is also a home to the Natural History Museum, the Finnish Ice Hockey Museum, Mineral Museum, Media Museum Rupriikki, Doll Museum, Postal Museum and the Finnish Museum of Games. Visitors can also enjoy museum restaurant Valssi and the museum shop.

The Finnish Labour Museum Werstas

is situated in the historical Finlayson cotton mill area. At the Steam Engine Museum, admire the original Sulzer steam engine that used to produce power for the Finlayson cotton mill. The Museum of Liberty tells the story of the Finnish welfare state that was built over the past hundred years.

Amuri Museum of Workers’ Housing

is a wooden block of buildings that housed working families starting over a century ago. Amuri is open during summers and introduces visitors to various life stories and the style of living from the 19th century to the 1970s. Nostalgic and cute Café Amurin Helmi serves breakfast and soup lunch in the museum area year-round.

World’s only Moomin Museum

is a place to discover the wit, wisdom, warmth and adventure of the Moomin books and illustrations known and loved by legions of fans all around the world. What Happens Next? presents all twelve Moomin books written and illustrated by Tove Jansson and shows how the characters changed from book to book.

Tampere Art Museum

presents art-historical themes and phenomena related to Finnish and international contemporary art. The collections comprise for the major part of Finnish art from the early 19th century onwards. Contemporary exhibitions present the annual Young Artist of the Year and the collection of Tampere Museum of Contemporary Art.

Sara Hildén Art Museum

is a permanent home of modern art, Finnish and foreign. In addition to the museum’s own collection, it presents changing exhibitions by renowned international visitors like Ron Mueck and Robert Longo. The museum is located in Särkänniemi amusement park.

Museum Milavida

is a distinctive museum located in Näsilinna palace, on Näsinkallio hill near the city centre. The permanent exhibition introduces the visitors to the intriguing story of past factory owner Wilhelm von Nottbeck’s family. Museum Milavida also displays changing theme exhibitions on fashion and design. Café and restaurant serve customers downstairs.

Lenin Museum

presents the shared history of Finland and Russia in a vivid, comprehensive and critical way. The museum takes visitors to a fascinating journey through some of the most remarkable events in our history: The Russian Revolution, The founding of the Soviet Union, Finland´s independence, the Second World War and finally the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Spy Museum

presents character stories, technical equipment, historical events and cunning methods of espionage. You can finish an agent test yourself, or eavesdrop the other visitors!

Finland’s only and official Police Museum

is an excellent location for everyone interested in the history and present of Finnish police work. In the children’s police station “Pokela”, young visitors can dress up in police uniform and try out different police tasks. The museum features changing special exhibitions.

Emil Aaltonen Museum

located in Pyynikinlinna mansion presents the life of former shoe factory owner Aaltonen and displays some of his art collection.

Hiekka Art Museum

showcases mainly Finnish art from 1850´s to present and foreign art from 1630-1910. The collection also includes antique furniture, silver objects and articles of ethnographic value.

Lauri Viita Museum

allows a peek into the life of a working family in Pispala from 1920s to 1960s as well as the childhood and life-work of Finnish author Lauri Viita.

There are some places worth mentioning outside Tampere as well:

The Automobile and Road Museum Mobilia

is situated at the lakeside in Kangasala, only 20 kilometers from the city of Tampere. The museum has two exhibition halls: the Mobilia center features an annually changing exhibition, and the Autoglym Rally Gallery presents the international Rally Hall of Fame as well as classic vintage cars. In the summer traffic park outside, kids can practice driving and learn traffic rules.

Kimmo Pyykkö Art Museum

with the museum’s changing exhibitions and Kangasala Art Centre’s gallery display high-class Finnish contemporary art and the works of sculptor Kimmo Pyykkö from several decades.

Voipaala art centre

in Valkeakoski offers changing art exhibitions throughout the year, in a historical mansion milieu. There are also various events such as markets and park concerts organized in Voipaala, located near the Rapola hill fort is strongly rooted in both the past and the present.

Visavuori museum

in Sääksmäki, Valkeakoski, is a former home and atelier of the sculptor Emil Wikström, now turned into a museum. Also the pavilion for Wikström’s grandson, the cartoonist Kari Suomalainen, is in the same complex and presents Kari’s art and changing exhibitions. The Karelian-style Visavuori was built in the beginning of the 1900’s and nowadays offers a good example of national romantic era of the artist. You can also reach Visavuori in the summertime with Finnish Silverline boat.

The Museum of Teisko

is a museum for local history and culture. Its own collections display the life and traditions of Tavastian people. The museum has over 2000 items in their collection and the area has different historical buildings, like storehouses and huts.

Serlachius Museums

in the town of Mänttä, North of Tampere Region, are one of the most significant Finnish museum centres full of art, history and architecture in the middle of a magnificent lake landscape. The Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation maintains two museums. The roots of the museums stretch back to the history of Serlachius family, known for its role in Finnish paper industry as well as art collecting.